Talkin' 'Bout My Generation

by
Laurie Manis

Dissident Voice

April
23, 2003

In gratitude to the person I admire most,
Helen Thomas

After
9/11, it did indeed seem possible that good might emerge from the evil of that
day; that our leaders might listen and learn rather than seek revenge; that my
generation might finally be roused from its apathetic, avaricious condition and
realize that we are members of the greater world community.

But
the bombing began, and in the ensuing climate of fear, our voices were silent
and have remained silent; despite the erosion of the basic inalienable rights
guaranteed to us by our Constitution; despite the fact that an appalling number
of the world's people now regard America as the single greatest threat to world
peace.

When
did we become so cautious, so fearful? Where is the idealism of our youth? When
did we decide the good fight was no longer worth fighting?

When
did we forget these words of Adlai Stevenson?

"Freedom
is not an ideal, it is not even a protection, if it means nothing more than freedom
to stagnate, to live without dreams, to have no greater aim than a second car
and another television set."

Did
it happen while we were talking on our cell phones as we drove our SUV's to the
nearest Gap or Home Depot in order to buy more things we don't need?

When
did we decide the words of Henry Steele Commager, whose column we read every
week in Senior Scholastic, were irrelevant?

"Loyalty
is the realization that America was born of revolt, flourished in dissent,
became great through experimentation. Our tradition is one of protest and
revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past while we
silence the rebels of the present."

Was
it while we waited, in our apathy and our greed, for the money of the
neo-conservatives to trickle down to us?

When
this President, in contempt of the U.S. Constitution and in criminal defiance
of the UN Charter, commits those serving in our armed services -- our
children's generation -- to fighting this war; when our elected representatives
cravenly stand by and do nothing, how can we still remain silent?

If
our troops, who swore to defend this country - not to engage in preemptive, unilateral
strikes against a country that has done nothing to harm us since the end of the
last Gulf War - are risking their very lives because they have no choice but to
obey orders, how dare we use expediency as the excuse for our failure to
protest?

Those
of us fortunate to have been born in America need to remember that it is not
enough for the citizens of a republic merely to pay taxes and obey the laws. It
is our bounden duty actively to engage in its processes. Our elected
representatives are our servants, paid by us and subject to our informed
supervision and criticism or as Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Dissent is the
highest form of patriotism".

We've
always been accused of being the most selfish and self-centered generation this
country ever produced. Let us now act to prove our critics wrong. Certainly the
possible repercussions are more frightening than they were back in The Day. The
power is in the hands of far fewer people than it was then. But let us not
forget that our unbridled greed, our unprecedented apathy and our vast
carelessness were the causes of that too. That the risks are enormous only
proves that the stakes have never been higher.

Our
generation, which was so quick to denigrate our elders when we were young,
needs now to turn to our parents' generation for inspiration, for they are the
ones who are providing the profiles in courage today.

We
ought to be burning with shame when we regard the indomitable courage of
Senator Byrd; when we regard the uncompromising morality of Pope John Paul II;
when we regard the unswerving journalistic integrity of Helen Thomas; when we
consider that the principles of the Greatest Generation serve to make its
members the people who are the most outspoken in their opposition to this war
and our country's current climate of fear.

But
then, they cut their teeth on Franklin Roosevelt's incomparable pronouncement,
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning,
unjustified terror."

Let
us, even at this late date, adopt those gallant words as our own.

In
conclusion, I quote the words of Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, uttered
in the year so many of us were born, 1950.

"Those
of us who shout the loudest about Americanism ... are all too frequently those
who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of
Americanism;

The
right to criticize.

The
right to hold unpopular beliefs.

The
right to protest.

The
right of independent thought.

The
exercise of these rights should not cost one single American citizen his
reputation or his right to a livelihood. Otherwise none of us could call our
souls our own."

This
Administration, which discourages debate and brooks no dissent, is using the basest
form of propaganda when it informs us that we must support our troops because
they are fighting for our 'freedoms'. And for us to remain silent in the face
of such shameless hypocrisy, for fear of possible repercussions, makes a
mockery out of the truly noble ideals of the fine young men and women serving
in the armed forces.

There
is strength and safety in numbers. If we can come together now as we did in our
youth, nothing can harm us and we will prevail.

Laurie Manis is the daughter
of a WWII veteran, the widow of a Viet Nam veteran and the mother of a Navy
Reservist. She was a plaintiff in the anti-war lawsuit against President Bush
and is a member of Military Families Speak Out (www.mfso.org)